Girls basketball coach Roberts took long road to Bluffton High

Ask Bluffton High girls basketball coach Lonnie Roberts how he wound up in his current position and he will regale you with a tale of the long path that led him to Bobcat country.

If you can name it, there is a chance he did it at some point in time.

From coaching high school athletics to fast food management, to demolition or starting a janitorial service, Roberts has been around. But he seems to feel most comfortable right here, right now.

With his and Bluffton High’s 10-year anniversary just around the corner, the jack-of-all trades said he could see himself in Bobcat green and black for another 10 years, or more.

“You know what, as long as my health is good and we keep going along, why not?” he said. “It’s fun and it keeps me energetic, always on the move.

“I have friends that tease me a lot, saying I look like yesterday and haven’t aged, but you know, I’m just blessed. I’m blessed with my surroundings, good students, good coaches, good staff and a wonderful community. That’s what makes it so fun.”

Finishing school, beginning life

Roberts, 53, had a successful career in football at South Carolina State University as a linebacker. He had just a half-dozen credit hours to make up for his degree in industrial education when he went to his coach’s office and was told about a local high school interested in hiring former players as coaches.

Though he was not sure what would come of it, Roberts was offered words from his very own coach. These words helped him move forward following his secondary education and a football career that did not continue on to the next level.

“I had no idea what it was going to lead up to,” Roberts said. “He said that coaching is very simple and you just have to take things you have learned in the past and apply them.

“From there, I wasn’t really sure it was something I wanted to do. In a sense, it was like a comfort zone because some of the guys I had played with and against wound up getting drafted, and myself, I did not, so there was a little bit of disappointment there, of course. So I somehow managed to use coaching as a kind of comfort zone — maybe I could help mold some kids in the future.”

Moving on, finding a niche

From there, Roberts started down a path that would take him to several different positions and careers. After resigning from his first coaching position, he wound up moving to Jacksonville, Fla. to start a janitorial business with a family member.

“They always say to not go into business with a family member,” Roberts said. “Well, that’s true.”

Roberts then found himself coaching linebackers at Calhoun County High School, after a former college coach asked him to join his staff. This was the beginning of something special for Roberts, who acknowledged as much after recalling his move to Calhoun County.

“This was pretty much the true beginning for me as a coach because I looked at the impact I had on some of those kids,” he said. “One athlete in particular, Chris Rumph, played defensive end at the University of South Carolina, through the span of time he was at Clemson as a collegiate coach, then at Alabama he called me up about Shameik Blackshear, and now he’s at Texas with Charlie Strong.

“So when I look back at those days, there are a lot of kids I coached who were very successful and have taken their game to the next level, no matter what it was. Some are doctors, some are lawyers and some are collegiate coaches, and if I had any kind of impact on them that’s just a great feeling.”

The only problem for Roberts was the lack of full-time position at the school. To that end, he worked two other jobs — demolition and fast food management. He eventually gave up the fast food to be a forklift operator, but it still was not what he wanted to do.

“That was blood, sweat and tears man,” he said. “I did demolition, I did fast food management, I operated a forklift, but at the same time, it still wasn’t right.

“It wasn’t what I really wanted to do.”

A new Lowcountry family

As Roberts recalls it, a former college teammate asked him if he would be interested working at a high school — Allendale Fairfax High. After coaching a player who would eventually be Clemson’s all-time leading rusher, Raymond Priester, Roberts left for Jasper County High School in the mid-1990s for what he thought was a better opportunity.

While at Jasper County, Roberts would eventually become the head football coach and led his team to the playoffs in three of four years at the helm. Though he eventually resigned, Roberts took the head coaching job for the girls basketball team, something he had only assisted at other schools like Allendale and Bethune-Bowman.

“We made the playoffs both years and we were very competitive,” he said. “I realized this was just something that I really enjoyed doing.”

Roberts left Jasper County for Frostproof (Fla.) High School, but found his way back to South Carolina after one year. It was then he and Bluffton athletic director Dave Adams linked up and he found a home.

“We met at Wendy’s because there was no school yet. We had no other place to meet,” Adams said. “I was excited at that point to get a girls basketball coach and at the same time get somebody who was a football guy and could work in the school.

“He was seasoned and I had just known him by name while he was at Jasper County. He just happened to stop by Hilton Head while I was still there and inquired about Bluffton. So for Lonnie to come in an automatically be an assistant football coach and experienced girls basketball coach, it was two coaches in one guy and it was fantastic to get that in such a great and dedicated person.”

Asked what kept him tied to one place for a decade, Roberts gave a very straightforward answer — his surroundings.

“It’s very simple. We have a good staff and it’s a homegrown feeling,” he said. “Being here, with the support of the community, we have freedom to do things like have a fundraiser to go to camp, and that’s priceless.

“Being here in Bluffton is very much like being in a family. I’ve had other job offers outside of here, sure, but it’s not about the money because I’m happy here. You can make that leap for other offers, but the next thing you know you could have given up the best thing you’ve ever had.”